Climbing Mt. Everest may seem like something you’d never do — and you probably won’t. But what about getting to Everest base camp? That seems more accessible, and just as exciting and Instagram-worthy. All you have to do is hike along narrow paths and up steep inclines, withstand freezing temperatures and acclimate to high altitudes to reach Base Camp, which is just shy of 17,600 feet above sea level (that’s at least 6,000 feet above the tree line). If you’re Erin Gloria Ryan, senior editor of The Daily Beast, this sounds like the perfect holiday getaway.

She wrote about the experience in “How Tourists Are Loving Mount Everest to Death,” published in May in The Daily Beast. In her story, she describes the 12-day hike from the small mountain town of Lukla all the way to Mt. Everest base camp, which she undertook with 14 tourists, two guides and six porters. 

“It was basically one long, snaking line of hikers going up this path, in a really unpleasant, wet snow storm,” she said. It was on this slippery path that she realized that despite being a challenging excursion, hiking the Himalayas is really popular.

Listen to our full interview with Ryan by clicking the audio player above.